The present invention relates to new and useful improvements in dispensers for household roll products such as plastic wrap, foil, wax paper, paper towels, and boxed goods such as sandwich bags, freezer bags, and trash bags, etc.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,565 issued Jul. 14, 1992, to Joseph W. Miller, the inventor in this application, there is disclosed a dispenser cabinet for organizing and dispensing one or more sheet materials, such as described above. Dispensing compartments are formed by horizontally spaced vertical panels attached to a pair of support beams. A roll compartment comprises a cantilevered shelf which supports the roll, a dispensing slit formed by the space between the edge of the cantilevered shelf an its adjacent vertical panel, and a cutting edge located on the bottom of said panel. A box compartment is defined by the space between any two said panels and a cantilevered shelf does not require a cutting edge. A paper towel holding means is attached to the end of the support beams and above the plane of the smaller rolls and their respective compartments. A door attaches to one of the said beams enclosing the dispensing compartments when said dispenser is attached to an existing wall cabinet.
The manufacture of the prior dispensing cabinet is relatively expensive and uneconomical to manufacture with the visible paper towel holding means as disclosed. The said dispenser has a design feature that requires right or left hand tearing when employed in one of its more useful embodiments. The present invention requires the manufacture of both left and right tear models as the invention as disclosed does not permit reversibility, that is, the manufacture of a single model that could be used either as a right or left tear as determined by the consumer. Furthermore, while the consumer has no objection to paper towel holders that visibly expose the paper towels, when given the choice to conceal the paper towel behind a door like the other wrap products, the consumer prefers the concealed look. The prior dispenser did not address this consumer preference and the resulting effects on the dispenser.
Another disadvantage of said dispenser is the cantilevered bottom shelf. This is an extra element that adds weight and costs to the overall invention that may not be required. Furthermore, the attachment of the bottom panel by the cantilevered design requires additional strength for the vertical side panels. Thus, by the elimination of the bottom panels further reduction of material and weight can be eliminated from the side panels.
Another disadvantage of the bottom panels as used in the invention to support rolls, occurs with the reduction of weight as the sheet materials are spent. The frictional forces that are employed by the rolls are dependent on weight and that decreases as the roll is spent. The tearing and dispensing of the roll is dependent on these frictional forces and becomes more difficult as the roll is more than fifty percent spent.
The increased use of boxed goods also provides consumers with more choices and more storage and dispensing requirements for these goods. The unmovable and fixed box holding means limits the number of models that can be offered economically and impacts negatively on the commercial success of the invention. Thus, the present invention is concerned with one or more improvements in such a dispenser.